


all God's miracles large and small

by emjee (MerryHeart)



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Banter, Fluff, M/M, Mutual Admiration
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-07
Updated: 2020-11-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:28:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27427216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MerryHeart/pseuds/emjee
Summary: Several short codas toYou do not have to be good.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 28
Kudos: 569





	all God's miracles large and small

**Author's Note:**

> These are set between the last two scenes of _You do not have to be good_ but I haven't actually decided what their order is relative to each other.
> 
> The title is from "Miracle of Miracles", one of the love songs in _Fiddler on the Roof_ , with the full line being, "Of all God's miracles large and small / the most miraculous one of all / is the one I thought would never be: / God has given you to me."

“Nicolò,” Joe sighs, the last vowel stretching into a moan. Nicky takes him even deeper in his mouth and Joe reaches back to press a hand against the headboard. “You’re—” _You’re a miracle_ , he wants to say, but he also doesn’t want it to sound like he’s saying that just because Nicky’s giving him the blowjob of a lifetime. He loses his capacity for words soon anyway, so it doesn’t really matter.

After the buzzing in his ears has faded and Nicky has crawled back up the bed to lie next to him, Joe can’t stop himself from asking, “Where did you learn to suck cock like that?”

“Seminary,” Nicky says. At first Joe can’t tell if he’s joking—Nicky’s sense of humor can be deliciously dry—but there’s no telltale crinkle around his eyes, which is usually what gives him away.

“Seriously?”

He nods. “I was far from the only closeted priest in Liguria.”

“No, that doesn’t surprise me.”

“And there’s, ah—I suppose you might call it a Catholic tendency to give in to temptation on the condition of fervent repenting when you’re done. Especially if you have a hard deadline like an ordination date.”

“I see.”

“Of course none if it was—none of it was like this.” Nicky says, gesturing between them. “I’m in love with you.”

It’s not news to Joe, but he’s never going to get tired of hearing it.

“You know what I’ve always appreciated about you?” Nicky continues.

“If it’s a list I will expect footnotes explaining your ranking order.”

Nicky tweaks Joe’s nipple in reply, which leads to Joe grabbing for Nicky’s hands, which leads to a minor tussle that ends with them making out, long and slow, completely wrapped around each other, hands in each other’s hair.

“I have always appreciated,” Nicky finally says, breathless, “that you never made jokes about me being a priest, whenever I swore a blue streak or laughed at one of your racy puns.” Oh, that brought back memories of late-night video calls in the year between Jerusalem and Genoa. “People expect the clergy to be a certain way, but you don’t stop being yourself. At least you’re not supposed to.” Which is why Nicky’s not a member of the clergy anymore. “And now I tell you I sucked cock in seminary and you don’t bat an eyelash.”

“I’ll bat my eyelashes at you all you want, sweet, it’ll just be for a better reason.”

“Your eyelashes are absurdly beautiful,” Nicky murmurs, and they’re kissing again.

“Hey,” Joe says, a considerable amount of time later. “What if we went dancing?”

Nicky hums against Joe’s neck. “You’d like to?”

“Well, you mentioned once that people don’t tend to invite the clergy out for dinner and dancing. I confess it’s been some time since I’ve gone out on the town, but I’m sure Nile knows good places, and I bet Andy does too. New chapters, and all that. It could be a celebration.”

“This feels like a celebration,” Nicky says, twining his hand with Joe’s. It really does, for many reasons, not the least of which is that Nicky laughs when he comes. “But I would enjoy that, I think. New chapters. Yes.”

They turn the light off soon after, and fall asleep clinging so closely to each other that Joe hardly knows where he stops and Nicky begins.

* * *

“Wait,” Booker says, “let me get this straight—you went to Genoa for research and ended up seducing a _priest_?”

They’re standing in the staff kitchen drinking truly terrible coffee out of mugs with the university log on them. Nicky should be here any minute—he and Joe have dinner plans, and he suggested meeting Joe at work instead of the restaurant because he still hasn’t met any of Joe’s colleagues. Joe keeps checking his phone in case Nicky loses his way in the corridors, even though Nicky’s been in the building before and claims he knows where the staff kitchen is.

“I did _not_ seduce him,” Joe insists. “He’d made vows, that’s not something either of us took lightly. We didn’t become involved until after he’d left the priesthood.”

“So you’re saying,” Andy cuts in, “that he left the priesthood to seduce _you_?”

“That’s not what I’m saying at all.”

“Don’t be modest, Joe, we believe you. Your gay aura is strong and you’ve got pretty eyes.”

“I think so too,” says a voice from the doorway, and all three of them whirl around to see Nicky leaning against the frame.

“Did you leave the priesthood to seduce him?” Andy asks point-blank, jerking her head toward Joe.

“That’s basically what happened,” Nicky says, and Andy rounds on Joe with a look of triumph.

“I want to hear everything,” she says. “Do you want some coffee?”

“No,” Joe and Booker answer simultaneously.

“It’s swill,” Booker explains. “As a Frenchman I cannot in good conscience let someone who knows what good coffee is subject themselves to this.”

“We only drink it because we’ve all made Faustian deals with the coffee maker,” Joe says.

“It’s always there in our hour of need,” continues Booker, “as long as you don’t try to make the coffee _good_.”

Nicky laughs and Joe introduces him to Booker and Andy properly.

“It’s very nice to meet you,” he says, with that tone of voice that makes people warm to him immediately.

Joe can tell that Andy will continue her cross-examination if he lets her, so he starts to rinse his coffee mug and says, “Well, we have dinner plans, so we’re gonna be off.”

“Leave the mug,” Andy says. “I’ll get it.”

Joe turns. “Really?” Andy’s the person who leaves passive aggressive notes about doing your own dishes— _It is not the job of the women in this department to clean up after you_ , that sort of thing.

“On the condition that you both come over for dinner next week. You too, Book. Quỳnh’s been asking me questions that I don’t have answers to, and you know that state of affairs can’t stand.”

“Deal,” Nicky says.

Andy smiles her I-love-winning smile. “Saturday, then.”

Joe sets his mug down in the sink.

“Why did you say you left the priesthood to seduce me?” Joe asks as they’re getting ready for bed.

“Hm?”

“What Andy asked.”

“Oh. Well. Simpler than explaining all of the other reasons.”

“But seducing me was one of them?”

Nicky gives him a curious look, then rakes his gaze up and down Joe’s body. It’s worth noting that neither of them are wearing shirts. “Is this a prelude to something, or are you actually confused?”

“It’s just that seduction implies convincing,” Joe explains. “You never had to convince me.”

“Does it?” Nicky asks. He steps closer and noses along Joe’s jawline, and Joe forces himself to take a long, slow breath. “I suppose so. I should have said I left the priesthood to romance you.” He kisses Joe’s neck, so light it’s almost chaste, except it’s his _neck_ and Nicky already knows exactly what that does to him. “And sometimes it’s nice to be…not convinced, exactly…” He trails his fingers down Joe’s side, and Joe shivers.

“I think the word you’re looking for is ‘wooed’.”

“Mm,” Nicky hums, kissing Joe’s neck again, then his cheek, then his temple. “That’s it.”

“And _nice_ is one way to put it.”

“What’s another way?”

Joe tucks a knuckle under Nicky’s chin and turns his head gently so they’re looking at each other. Once their eyes meet, Joe can’t even remember what he was going to say.

It appears he doesn’t have to, because Nicky’s lips part and his face flushes rather noticeably.

“Bed,” Joe says, but before either of them can move he has a hand around the back of Nicky’s neck and their mouths meet, open and sure and the farthest thing from shy, and Nicky almost trips as he backs toward the bed with Joe pulling at his pajama bottoms.

It’s a night for long, slow kisses and shameless moans and bruises left behind from gripping your lover’s hips too hard. (“It’s not too hard,” Nicky insists, “I want to feel you.”)

Joe feels his love for this man crash over him like a wave; it would be overwhelming if he didn’t feel so damn sure of himself.

“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life,” he murmurs, apropos of nothing, his face tucked against Nicky’s neck.

“Neither have I.” Nicky has a hand in Joe’s hair and is gently massaging his scalp, which causes the few muscles in Joe’s body that were still functional after sex to completely give up and decide all bodily motion has been canceled for the rest of the evening.

“That’s good, isn’t it.”

“Very good.”

Loving Nicky is easy, Joe thinks, because Nicky loves so openly. Joe doesn’t feel like he has to guard his heart, because Nicky will be careful with it. The more love they give each other, the more they have.

Joe falls asleep trying to think of a phrase, and when he describes it to Nicky when they wake up the next morning Nicky kisses him thoroughly and tells him, “I think the term you’re looking for is 'feedback loop'.”

If you ask Joe, it's the best damn feedback loop in creation.


End file.
